Inheritance in Dubai: What Happens to Assets After Death?
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Inheritance in Dubai is governed by a layered system that changed dramatically when Federal Decree-Law 41 of 2022 took effect on 1 February 2023. Before that reform, a German national who died in the UAE without a will could see their estate distributed under Sharia rules: a fixed mathematical share to each parent, sons receiving twice the share of daughters, and a surviving wife capped at one-eighth if there were children. Today, non-Muslim foreigners default to a civil framework instead. This guide walks German and other international expats through the three planning tracks available in 2026, the one trap that overrides every will (Article 17(5) of the UAE Civil Code), the German-side paperwork your heirs will need, and the Erbschaftsteuer exposure on the German tax-residency side. No "you need a DIFC Will or your wife loses everything" influencer panic. Just the law and the planning options.
What Happens to Your Assets When You Die in Dubai? The Short 2026 Answer
If you are a non-Muslim foreigner with assets in Dubai and you die in 2026, one of three legal regimes will distribute your estate. Which one applies depends on whether you left a registered will, whether you opted into the civil personal-status framework, and whether the asset in question is movable (a bank account, a car, a portfolio) or immovable (a freehold villa, an apartment, a piece of land).
The default for non-Muslim foreigners under Federal Decree-Law 41 of 2022 is a civil intestacy rule: half of the estate to the surviving spouse, and the remaining half divided equally among the children regardless of gender. If you have no spouse and no children, the estate flows to parents, then siblings, then the wider family in the order set out in the law. This replaces the older Sharia-default outcome that used to apply by force to non-Muslims as well, and it is the single most important thing that has changed since the German law-firm guides written before 2023.
Two pieces of fine print matter from day one. The first is that immovable property in the UAE, regardless of what your will says or which jurisdiction you opt into, is governed by Article 17(5) of the UAE Civil Code, which forces UAE inheritance law to apply to UAE-located real estate. The second is that the Sharia framework is still the default for UAE Muslim nationals and remains available as a regime for non-Muslims who specifically choose it; it does not vanish simply because you are a foreigner.
Decree 41/2022 and the New Civil Personal Status Law: What Changed for Non-Muslims
Federal Decree-Law 41 of 2022 (the Civil Personal Status Law for Non-Muslim Foreigners) took effect across the UAE on 1 February 2023. It does for the federal level what Abu Dhabi's Law 14 of 2021 did for that emirate: pulls non-Muslim foreigners out of the Sharia default and places them inside a Common-Law-style civil framework for marriage, divorce, custody, and inheritance. The UAE's own portal references this Personal Status framework when describing the laws that govern marriage, wills, and inheritance, as referenced on the UAE government's marriage and personal-status overview [EXTERNAL trust:primary uae_gov].
Three changes matter for inheritance planning:
Default civil intestacy now exists. Before 2023, dying without a will in the UAE as a non-Muslim foreigner produced a Sharia outcome by force. Now, the default is the civil rule (half spouse, half children equally split). The Sharia outcome is still available but no longer compulsory.
You can opt into your home-country law. Decree 41/2022 also recognises that non-Muslim foreigners may have their estates distributed under the law of their country of nationality, provided that law does not contradict UAE public policy. For German nationals, this is the legal hook that makes the EU Succession Regulation's Rechtswahlklausel route (Track 3 below) workable in UAE courts.
The civil framework explicitly applies to wills. Decree 41/2022 establishes that non-Muslim foreigners can register wills covering UAE assets and have those wills enforced under civil rules rather than translated into Sharia equivalents.
What did NOT change: the immovable-asset override in Article 17(5) of the Civil Code. That predates Decree 41/2022 and survives it. Real estate located in the UAE is still treated as a UAE-jurisdiction asset for inheritance purposes regardless of the deceased's nationality or chosen succession law.
The Default Rule Without a Will: Half Spouse, Half Children (Sons and Daughters Equal)
Picture the most common case. A German engineer dies in Dubai at 56 with a German wife and two children, a son and a daughter. He owned a freehold apartment in Business Bay, a savings account at Emirates NBD, a UAE brokerage portfolio, and a car. He never registered a will. He never made a Decree 41/2022 election in writing.
Under the post-2023 civil default, the estate flows like this:
50% to the surviving wife.
25% to the son.
25% to the daughter.
The son and daughter receive the same share. This is the practical effect of "equal division regardless of gender" under the new law. Compare it to the old Sharia default where the son would have received twice the daughter's share and the wife's portion would have been capped at one-eighth.
The default applies to the movable parts of the estate (the bank account, the car, the brokerage account) without controversy. The freehold apartment is the asset that needs the next section's discussion, because Article 17(5) is in play.
For the bank-account side specifically, joint accounts behave differently from single accounts. A jointly-held UAE bank account in the names of both spouses generally allows the surviving spouse continued access while probate runs, whereas a single-named account is frozen at death until the heirs produce a court order or a registered DIFC Will. This makes the choice of account structure when you open your UAE banking directly relevant to estate planning.
The Sharia Default: When It Still Applies and to Whom
The Sharia inheritance framework remains the default for UAE Muslim nationals and for any non-Muslim who specifically elects it. It is also the framework UAE courts apply when a non-Muslim dies intestate before any of the planning steps below has been taken AND the heirs cannot or do not invoke Decree 41/2022's civil default.
Under the Sharia framework, fixed mathematical shares (faraid) apply: a surviving wife receives one-eighth if there are children and one-quarter if there are none; a husband receives one-quarter if there are children and one-half if there are none; sons receive twice the share of daughters; parents and siblings step in based on the structure of the surviving family. The shares are deterministic, which means the heirs do not have discretion to redistribute among themselves outside that arithmetic.
The single operational fact a non-Muslim foreigner needs to know in 2026 is this: the Sharia framework is no longer the forced default for you, but it is the framework UAE courts will fall back to if your heirs do not produce evidence of a Decree 41/2022 civil election, a registered DIFC Will, or a German testament with a valid Rechtswahlklausel that can be authenticated and apostilled. The way you avoid the Sharia outcome is by leaving documentation behind, not by being a non-Muslim.
This is also where the influencer panic content gets the law half-right and half-wrong. The "your wife will lose everything" framing was true for non-Muslim foreigners before 2023. After 2023, it is only true if the family does nothing at all and cannot even cite Decree 41/2022 to claim the civil default. Documentation is cheap. Doing nothing is the actual risk.
Track 1: Decree 41/2022 Opt-In Without a Will (For Simple Family Profiles)
The cheapest planning track is also the simplest: confirm in writing that you elect the Decree 41/2022 civil framework and rely on the new default distribution. No DIFC Will, no German testament, no fees beyond the cost of a notarised statement.
This works for a narrow but common profile:
Married, with one or more children.
All assets in the UAE are movable (bank accounts, brokerage, vehicles), with no UAE freehold real estate.
You are comfortable with the half-spouse, half-children-equally-split outcome as your actual estate plan.
Your home country (Germany, Austria, Switzerland for the DACH audience) is one whose inheritance law is recognised under Decree 41/2022 if the heirs need to invoke it.
The mechanics: you sign a notarised declaration, attestable in the UAE, stating that you elect the civil framework of Decree 41/2022 and (if relevant) the inheritance law of your home country as a backstop. Keep the document with your other UAE legal papers and in your home-country lawyer's file. Total cost: a few hundred dirhams in notary fees.
The limitation: Track 1 is silent on real estate. If you own UAE freehold property, Article 17(5) overrides Decree 41/2022 for that specific asset, and a Track 2 or Track 3 instrument is needed in addition. Track 1 also does not solve the cross-border probate question, it tells UAE courts what to do with UAE-located movable assets, but it does not coordinate with the German Erbschein / Standesamt process described later in this guide.
Track 2: DIFC Wills Registry (Gold Standard for Dubai Assets, AED 10,000, Common Law Probate)
The Dubai International Financial Centre Wills Service Centre (commonly called the DIFC Wills Registry) is the single most-used inheritance-planning tool for international residents holding significant Dubai assets. It exists because DIFC operates as a Common Law jurisdiction inside the broader UAE federal framework, which means a will registered there is interpreted under Common Law rules and enforced via the DIFC Courts probate process.
The headline numbers in 2026:
Registration fee: AED 10.000 for a single will (single asset class), AED 15.000 for a "full" will covering all asset classes, plus AED 5.000 per additional witnessed amendment.
Eligibility: Non-Muslim with UAE assets. Open to all foreign nationals regardless of whether they are UAE residents.
Coverage: Movable and immovable assets located in any of the seven emirates plus Ras Al Khaimah (RAK has its own Wills Registry; DIFC and RAK now coordinate registrations).
Probate process: DIFC Courts apply Common Law principles. The will is enforced via a grant of probate, similar to how an English will would be administered in London.
The reason DIFC Wills are called the gold standard for Dubai assets has nothing to do with Decree 41/2022 vs Sharia. It has to do with predictability. A DIFC Will tells the courts exactly who inherits which asset, in what share, at what time, and under whose executor. Decree 41/2022 only sets a default; a DIFC Will lets you depart from the default in any way you want (give 100% to the spouse, give a specific apartment to a specific child, set up a guardianship clause for minor children, name an executor). The fee buys certainty.
For German nationals specifically, the DIFC Will is the cleanest solution when:
You own UAE freehold property (because Article 17(5) forces UAE law to apply, and the DIFC Will is UAE-jurisdictional).
You want to depart from the Decree 41/2022 default (e.g. a blended family where the natural shares would not match your wishes).
You want a single document that handles UAE assets cleanly, leaving your German testament to handle your German-located assets.
The practical step: book a consultation appointment with the DIFC Wills Registry, prepare the asset list and beneficiary structure with a UAE-licensed lawyer (or with the Registry's own template service for simple cases), and attend the witnessing appointment in person. The will is registered the same day if all documents are in order.
Track 3: German Testament with Choice-of-Law Clause (EU Succession Regulation Article 22)
For German tax-residents (or anyone domiciled in an EU member state) who hold most of their wealth in Germany and only some in Dubai, the third track is a German notarial testament containing a choice-of-law clause (Rechtswahlklausel) under Article 22 of the EU Succession Regulation (EU 650/2012, the Erbrechtsverordnung).
The mechanics: under Article 22 of the Regulation, a person can elect that the inheritance law of their country of nationality will govern their estate, regardless of where they are habitually resident at death. A German national living in Dubai who signs a German notarial testament with a clause stating "the inheritance law of the Federal Republic of Germany shall apply to my entire estate" achieves three things in one document:
The estate is distributed under German Erbrecht (with all its protections, pflichtteil rules, and notarial recognition mechanics).
The Dubai assets that are NOT immovable real estate flow through the same German-law framework, recognised by UAE courts via Decree 41/2022's home-country-law allowance.
The German Erbschein issued for the estate is the operative document for your UAE bank to release funds, your UAE broker to transfer the portfolio, and your UAE vehicle registration to transfer the title.
Cost: a German notary's testament with a Rechtswahlklausel is typically EUR 300 to EUR 800 depending on estate value (the Notarkostenordnung sets the fee schedule by Geschäftswert).
The limitation: Track 3 does not solve the freehold real estate problem. Article 17(5) of the UAE Civil Code overrides any choice-of-law clause for UAE-located immovable property. A German testament with a Rechtswahlklausel can validly direct your German house, your German savings, your German Wertpapierdepot, your Dubai bank account, and your Dubai-registered company shares. It cannot validly direct your Dubai apartment.
This is the case for combining Tracks 2 and 3. German testament for everything except Dubai real estate; DIFC Will for the Dubai real estate. Two documents, no overlap, both legally enforceable on their respective sides.
The Trap: Article 17(5) UAE Civil Code Overrides Wills for Real Estate
Article 17(5) is the single biggest gotcha in cross-border UAE estate planning. It says, in operational terms: the law of the location of immovable property governs its inheritance, regardless of the deceased's nationality, residency, or chosen succession law. For a German freehold-villa owner in Palm Jumeirah, this means UAE inheritance law applies to that villa even if your German testament says otherwise and even if you have made a Decree 41/2022 civil election.
The practical effect:
A DIFC Will is the only instrument that reliably directs UAE freehold real estate. Both Tracks 1 and 3 are subject to Article 17(5) override on the property.
If you own UAE freehold and have done nothing else, the freehold flows to your heirs under the Decree 41/2022 default (half spouse, half children equally) for non-Muslim foreigners or under Sharia if no Decree 41 election has been made and the heirs cannot invoke it.
The override applies to freehold real estate. It does NOT apply to UAE-listed company shares held in a brokerage account, UAE bank balances, UAE-registered vehicles, or movable goods. Those flow under whichever Track you have set up.
If you are weighing whether to buy a Dubai apartment in 2026, this is one of the up-front factors to plan around, alongside the financing, the Oqood/title-deed mechanics, and the broader property-purchase process for a German buyer. Inheritance planning for the property is a Day-One conversation, not a Year-Five afterthought.
Which Track for Which Profile: Comparison
The honest answer to "which track should I use?" is "depends on your asset map and family structure." The table below sets out the main combinations.
Profile | Movable UAE assets | UAE freehold | Recommended track |
Single, no children, modest UAE bank balance | Yes | No | Track 1 (Decree 41/2022 declaration) |
Married, children, no UAE property, all wealth in Germany | Yes (bank, car) | No | Track 1 + simple German testament |
Married, children, UAE freehold villa, modest German assets | Yes | Yes | Track 2 (DIFC Will) |
German tax-resident, blended German + UAE wealth, no UAE property | Yes | No | Track 3 (German testament + Rechtswahlklausel) |
German tax-resident, blended German + UAE wealth, UAE freehold | Yes | Yes | Tracks 2 + 3 combined |
Wealth in UAE only, family elsewhere | Yes | Yes | Track 2 (DIFC Will) |
Want Sharia distribution by personal preference | Either | Either | Express Sharia election (rare for non-Muslims) |
The combination row matters more than any single track. Most German nationals with both German and UAE wealth and at least one Dubai apartment end up running Tracks 2 and 3 in parallel. The DIFC Will handles the apartment and any other UAE-jurisdictional asset where Article 17(5) is in play; the German testament with Rechtswahlklausel handles everything else and provides the single Erbschein document the German-side process needs.
The German Erbschein and Standesamt: Repatriating Movable UAE Assets
When a German national dies in Dubai, the German-side process runs in parallel with whatever happens in the UAE. Two German documents matter:
The Sterbeurkunde (death certificate) is issued initially in the UAE by the Emirates Health Service. For German use it must be translated, apostilled at the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then registered with the German Standesamt (the home registry office in Germany or the relevant German consulate). This becomes the basis for closing the deceased's German pension, German bank accounts, and any German-side reporting obligations.
The Erbschein (certificate of inheritance) is issued by the German Nachlassgericht (probate court) and identifies the heirs under German law. The Erbschein is the document a UAE bank, broker, or vehicle authority will request to release the deceased's UAE-located movable assets to heirs who are claiming them under German inheritance law (Track 3). Without an Erbschein, the UAE side has nothing in writing from a German court to act on, and the assets stay frozen.
The realistic timeline: 4 to 12 weeks from the date of death to a registered Erbschein, assuming the heirs submit the German testament (if any), the apostilled Sterbeurkunde, and proof of relationship (German Geburtsurkunde, Heiratsurkunde) promptly. UAE-side probate via DIFC Courts (if a DIFC Will exists) or via Dubai Personal Status Court (if Track 1 is in play) typically runs another 6 to 12 weeks in parallel. The Auswärtige Amt's consular section can liaise with the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the apostille step, which removes one of the most common bottlenecks. The German chamber's UAE office, the AHK UAE [EXTERNAL trust:primary dach_gov], can connect German nationals with the right specialist advisors when a complex cross-border estate needs both German notarial and UAE legal support.
In practice, the heirs end up with a paperwork stack that includes: the German Erbschein, the apostilled UAE Sterbeurkunde registered at the Standesamt, the DIFC Will (if any) with the DIFC Courts grant of probate, and the bank/broker/RTA forms each institution requires for transfer.
Inheritance Tax: What Germany Taxes When the UAE Taxes Nothing (No Inheritance Tax Treaty)
The UAE imposes zero inheritance tax. That is true at the federal level and at every emirate level. Inheriting AED 5 million from a Dubai-located estate triggers no UAE tax filing, no UAE tax assessment, no UAE tax payment.
The German side is a different conversation. Germany levies Erbschaftsteuer (inheritance tax) on the heir based on the heir's tax residency, the heir's relationship to the deceased, and the value of the inherited share. The brackets and personal allowances are set out in the Erbschaftsteuer- und Schenkungsteuergesetz (ErbStG) and explained in the Federal Ministry of Finance's overview of inheritance and gift tax [EXTERNAL trust:primary dach_gov].
The 2026 personal allowances (Persönliche Freibeträge) most relevant for the German-Dubai cross-border case:
Surviving spouse: EUR 500.000
Child (per parent): EUR 400.000
Grandchild: EUR 200.000
Parent inheriting from child: EUR 100.000
Siblings, nieces, nephews, unrelated heirs: EUR 20.000
Above the allowance, the rate scales from 7% to 30% in Tax Class I (spouse, children, grandchildren), 15% to 43% in Tax Class II (parents inheriting from a child, siblings, in-laws), and 30% to 50% in Tax Class III (unrelated heirs).
The critical point for Dubai estate planning: there is NO double-taxation treaty between Germany and the UAE on inheritance tax. The general DBA between Germany and the UAE that existed for income tax expired on 31 December 2021 and was not renewed. Even if it had been renewed, it covered Einkommensteuer (income tax), not Erbschaftsteuer. There has never been a German-UAE inheritance-tax treaty.
What this means in practice: a German tax-resident heir who inherits AED 2 million from a Dubai-located estate pays full German Erbschaftsteuer on that inheritance after the personal allowance, with NO credit for any "UAE inheritance tax paid" because there is no UAE inheritance tax to credit. The reverse is also true: a non-resident German receiving an inheritance from a German-located estate is taxed under German rules, but a German tax-resident receiving an inheritance from a UAE-located estate gets no relief from the UAE side.
The planning move that exists here is on the wealth-structuring side, not the post-mortem side. Germans considering a long-term move to the UAE who plan to accumulate UAE wealth often look at the relationship between Dubai's tax framework and the German exit-tax rules when they are still German tax-resident, and at the practical effect of becoming UAE tax-resident before any inheritance event occurs (which can move the heir, not the deceased, out of the German Erbschaftsteuer net for non-German-located assets, subject to the 5-year extended-residency rule under Section 4 ErbStG for German nationals who emigrated).
This is also where the broader German-perspective Dubai tax framework needs to inform the inheritance plan. Estate planning that ignores the heirs' tax residency leaves money on the table, and the inheritance tax bill can easily exceed the entire fee budget of Tracks 2 and 3 combined.
Practical Steps: What to Do Today (Document Checklist)
The minimum operational checklist for a non-Muslim foreigner with UAE assets, ranked by urgency:
List your UAE assets. Bank accounts (single vs joint), brokerage portfolio, freehold real estate (with the title deed number), UAE-registered vehicles, UAE LLC shares, gold-and-jewellery in a UAE safe-deposit box, crypto held with a UAE-licensed custodian. Use one document. Update annually.
List your German (or home-country) assets. Mirror the structure above. The exercise is to identify which jurisdiction holds which asset, because each jurisdiction's law applies separately.
Decide the track or combination. Match your profile against the table earlier in this guide. Most German nationals with UAE freehold end up running Tracks 2 + 3.
Sign a Decree 41/2022 declaration. Even if you also register a DIFC Will, a notarised civil-framework election removes ambiguity from the UAE-side process.
Register your DIFC Will if your asset profile justifies it. Book the appointment, prepare the asset and beneficiary list, attend in person.
Sign or update your German testament with a Rechtswahlklausel. A German notary handles this in one appointment.
Tell your spouse and adult children where the documents live. A perfect estate plan that no heir knows about is the same as no estate plan.
Keep copies in two physical locations and one cloud archive. UAE court files have been known to be hard to retrieve internationally; redundancy is cheap.
Review every five years or after any material change. New child, divorce, new property purchase, new German tax residency status, new UAE residency status. The plan needs to reflect current reality.
Coordinate with one cross-border advisor. A German Erbrechts-lawyer who works with a Dubai-licensed counterpart, or a UAE-licensed lawyer who has a German-trained partner. Either combination works; doing it through two lawyers who have never spoken to each other is what produces the gaps.
This is also why the START team routinely refers clients to specialist estate counsel during the residency-and-business-setup conversation. Inheritance planning is downstream of the move itself, but it should be on the agenda within the first year of UAE residency, not after a property purchase has already been made or a UAE company has already been incorporated.
FAQ
Inheritance in Dubai without a will: what happens to your assets?
Assets in Dubai without a will are distributed under Federal Decree-Law 41 of 2022 for non-Muslim foreigners, which sets a default of half to the surviving spouse and half divided equally among children regardless of gender. This replaces the older Sharia-default outcome that previously applied to non-Muslims by force. The civil default applies to movable assets without complication; freehold real estate is also distributed under UAE law because of the Article 17(5) Civil Code override, which forces UAE jurisdiction on immovable property regardless of nationality or any choice-of-law clause.
What does a DIFC Will cost?
A DIFC Will costs AED 10.000 for a single-asset will (one asset class) and AED 15.000 for a full will covering all asset classes registered with the DIFC Wills Service Centre. The fee includes the registration, witnessing, secure digital storage, and the legal infrastructure to enforce the will via DIFC Courts under Common Law principles. Amendments after registration are charged at AED 5.000 per witnessed amendment, and most international-resident families review their DIFC Will every three to five years or after any material change in family or asset structure.
Does my German testament apply in Dubai?
Your German testament applies in Dubai for all non-real-estate assets if it contains a valid choice-of-law clause (Rechtswahlklausel) under Article 22 of the EU Succession Regulation electing German inheritance law. Decree 41 of 2022 recognises home-country inheritance law for non-Muslim foreigners, which means a German notarial testament with this clause directs UAE bank accounts, brokerage portfolios, vehicles, and company shares cleanly. Article 17(5) of the UAE Civil Code overrides this for UAE-located freehold real estate, so a separate DIFC Will is needed for any Dubai property.
Who inherits under Decree 41/2022?
Under Decree 41 of 2022, the surviving spouse inherits half of the estate and the children divide the remaining half equally regardless of gender. If there is no surviving spouse, the entire estate is split equally among the children. If there are no children, the spouse takes the full estate. If there is neither spouse nor children, the estate flows to parents, then siblings, then the wider family in the statutory order, mirroring the structure of the Common Law civil-intestacy frameworks the UAE drew on when drafting the new personal-status code for non-Muslim foreigners.
Does Germany tax inheritance from Dubai assets?
Germany taxes inheritance from Dubai assets if the heir is a German tax-resident, regardless of where the deceased lived or where the assets were located. The applicable tax is Erbschaftsteuer, with personal allowances of EUR 500.000 for a surviving spouse, EUR 400.000 per child, and progressively lower allowances for more distant relatives, plus rates from 7% to 50% above the allowance depending on the tax class. There is no German-UAE inheritance-tax treaty, so no foreign-tax credit applies, and the UAE itself imposes zero inheritance tax on either side of the transaction.
